Arena excited to bring Reset Tour to Tasmania

Tina Arena will present her Reset Tour in Hobart on September 3. Picture: Simon Upton.

TASMANIA has been put on the map for Tina Arena's coming tour now that the ARIA award-winning singer- songwriter is funding, promoting and running the tour herself.

Arena, who is one of Australia's highest-selling female artists, announced her national Reset Tour on Sunday.

However, unlike others she has performed in the past, Arena is taking the reins of this one on her own.

"It's a very, very, very big risk, basically if the tour doesn't sell, it means that I could be on the dole," she told The Examiner on Monday.

"But I really believe that today it's important in an industry like this, which has shrunk to a pathetic point, that you believe in what you do.

"[And] it's important that artists gain a little bit more control of their destiny."

Arena has been a household name across the country for decades after finding fame as a seven-year- old on Young Talent Time.

She spends half her year living in France and released her first album in 12 years in Australia last year.

Arena said it was scary coming back into the industry after a lengthy hiatus and despite the "overwhelmingly positive" response the Reset album received, the fact that piracy was still an issue was disappointing.

"It's incredibly unfair that the artist community around the world has been a victim of dealing with a generation of kids who feel they're entitled to have something for free," Arena said.

"People have to speak honestly about it [piracy] and that's the reason I am doing this tour on my own.

"It's not to say that promoters should be knocked out, there are honest promoters in every field, but after 40 years of being an entertainer, I believe in my fan base, I believe that people come to see me for a good reason and therefore, I feel that it's the right time to invest in my own and know that things are being distributed properly."

Arena's Reset album had between 10,000 and 15,000 illegal downloads the day it was released.

Arena said she was excited about coming back to Tasmania.

Arena said Tasmania was one of her favourite places in the world because of the landscape, sense of purity, the Salamanca market and the food.

Arena will perform at Hobart's Wrest Point Entertainment Centre on September 3.

Tickets for the tour go on sale March 20, at 2pm on www.tinaarena.com.